Rather than a two-edged sword, Hamlin sees 23XI success as a win-win

23XI Racing had a party Tuesday night. In the hauler bay at Airspeed – the team's state-of-the-art home base in Huntersville, N.C. – music blared, the food and drink flowed, and employees and their families again had a chance to enjoy what they accomplished 37 days ago.

The gathering was a secondary celebration for the Daytona 500 won by Tyler Reddick and the No. 45 team. Frank Kelleher, the president of Daytona International Speedway, was on hand to reflect with Reddick, crew chief Billy Scott, and then present the team owner prizes for Denny Hamlin (pictured above, with Reddick and Daytona's Harley J. Earl trophy) the and Michael Jordan.

And Hamlin looked as happy as if he had won the race. For the first time in his career, he has been celebrating someone else’s success in an event that he’s won three times.

“This is easier for me because it’s not on a race day,” Hamlin told RACER. “I didn’t have a failure an hour ago. I didn’t just lose a race. So, this is more enjoyable because my sole focus today is 23XI and its accomplishments. I’m not coming in hot out of a car.

“So, it’s a lot better.”

Hamlin has been the winning owner representative in all four of Reddick’s victories this season, which started with the Daytona 500. On that day in Feb., Hamlin said being in victory lane and onstage in the media center was different from winning the race himself, but still fantastic.

Incredibly, Hamlin has been in the media center after the NASCAR Cup Series race in five of the first six weeks. In addition to Reddick’s success, Hamlin added his own win for Joe Gibbs Racing two weeks ago in Las Vegas. So, it’s not a hard stretch for why Hamlin has looked as relaxed and happy as he has in recent weeks, and Tuesday night in the race shop that he designed himself.

Either as a driver of his own No. 11 or as an owner of Reddick's No. 45, Hamlin has been a winner on five of the Cup Series' first six weekends. Meg Oliphant/Getty Images

Reddick’s triumph in Daytona was the second crown jewel win for 23XI Racing in its still short tenure in the series. The organization celebrated its 5-year anniversary in 2025, during which Bubba Wallace won the Brickyard 400 in the summer, and Reddick won at Daytona to kick off year No. 6.

“It’s hard,” said Hamlin of winning crown jewel races. “It’s really hard to win one. You get so used to the big organizations, the legacy organizations. Crown jewels are their time to shine.

“But it could also be a moment where we’re like, ‘Yeah, but this is the next team that’s going to be considered an elite team in this sport.’”

23XI Racing debuted in 2021 as a single-car team with Wallace. The expansion began a year later, with Kurt Busch joining the fold, and then Reddick inherited Busch’s ride in 2023. Busch was forced into an early retirement after a concussion suffered at Pocono Raceway in qualifying. A third car was added in 2025 with Riley Herbst, and the organization is now at its charter limit of three full-time cars.

The goal was always expansion. The goal was to be a championship contender in five years. Both of those things happened, the latter coming in the fourth year with Reddick winning the regular-season championship and making the Championship 4.

There has been at least one win in each of the team’s five-plus seasons. Either one or both drivers have made postseason appearances. And for Hamlin, there is nothing that he can find as far as expectations or milestones that 23XI Racing hasn’t already accomplished in five years.

“No, because it’s gotten better every year,” he said. “There might be some years where there are more wins than in others, but in general, performance has gotten better every year. Obviously, this year, the start is going to be hard to top next year, but still, it’s just a steady progression, and wanting to see our cars grouped more tightly together up front is the next goal.”

And the more success that 23XI Racing has, the more Hamlin is living the dream of team ownership.

“Because you do all the things that you think are right as far as putting a team together, but you just never know what can happen,” he said. “I’m just really proud of the pieces we put together … we put in the big puzzle pieces, and then they filled in the smaller pieces. So that was the key that made all this possible. At this point, now I’m just getting to reap the reward of the successes of what they’re doing.”